About Me

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Fasnacht procession through the streets of Hunsruck occurred in keeping with dictates of immemorial Shrove Tuesday tradition. Notably absent, though, was any member of the ducal family, who customarily presided over the festivities. The court gazette revealed that the Herzogin had retired to the ducal hunting lodge outside Kognat, and the new Pfalzgrafin was of course en route to her new life in Waldreck. More disturbing to insiders, though, was the conspicuous lack of any explanation for the absence of the Herzog or dowager duchess.

Rumours from the court suggested that both had been indisposed by a particularly pernicious flux, although no official confirmation of such questions could be forthcoming--to a question that verged on the treasonous even to ask. Nonetheless, the citizens of Hunsruck threw themselves with abandon into the Carnival atmosphere, indulging the carnal appetites that must shortly be mortified through the meagre days of Lent.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The ceremony concluded, the party moved to the entrance gallery just inside the porte-cochere where the Pfalzgrafin's Landau, as well as the wagons carrying her trousseau were attended by the unmixing honour guard of Obersaynische Kürrasiere and Waldrecker Dragoons. Pausing at the entrance, His Grace called for the traditional bridal cup, a golden double chalice formed in the shape of a woman holding a basin overhead.

Graf von Kostenwand, Herzog Ignaz's chamberlain, brought the bridal cup forth on a golden salver, followed by four stewards, who bore wine glasses and two bottles of the most highly prized vintage of the duchy, the Bernkasteler Doktor. Filling first the bridal cup, the stewards then filled the other glasses which were distributed to the members of the party by the dowager duchess' ladies-in-waiting. Herzog Ignaz handed the bridal cup to his daughter, remarking "the comte can drink for the Pfalzgraf," and flipped the larger base over his daughter's cup, which she cradled carefully. The duke paused a moment and filled the base as well and gestured to the Comte de Mazan, who stepped to the cup, facing the new Pfazgrafin and grasped the larger base while the duke filled it.

Stepping back, the duke addressed the party.

"A toast:

'With faith there is love,With love there is peace,With peace there is blessing,With blessing, there is God,With God there is no need.'"

At the conclusion of which, the Grafin von Schirnhausen, taking the bridesmaid's traditional part, declared, "And let who finishes first rule the roost!"

Taking her cue, the new Pfalzgrafin von Waldreck tossed back the golden cup and its golden contents, while the comte paused a moment attempting to deduce the meaning of the Grafin's coda, before drinking from his larger end of the cup. Applause from the party greeted the Pfalzgrafin's completion of her draught well before the comte, whose face assumed something of a flush at his intuition that he had become the object of a joke he did not understand.

Leaving the comte to hold the now-drained bridal cup, the Pfalzgrafin gestured for the stewards, and took the still half-full second bottle, and embracing first her father and then her grandmother topped all the glasses of the party a second time and splashed the dregs into her own cup and, eyes shining, offered a farewell toast in return.

"Father, grandmother, no words can repay the blessings of having been your child and grandchild. I go now to another land, but your love and the love of Hunsruck will remain with me always."

The party sipped their glasses somewhat tentatively at this awkward moment, but the comte insinuated himself into the pause with aplomb, "I came to meet a Prinzessin, but I take away the best and fairest Pfalzgrafin of all the Reich!" and embraced the Herzog and dowager duchess as well, somewhat to their surprise at this Gallic display.

Draining their glasses, the party now made their farewells to the wedding party, who now donned their furs, brought by the stewards, and proceeded outside, the Pfalzgrafin to her Landau, and the Comte de Mazan and Ritter von Trimbach to their mounts at the head of their respective squadrons. Led by the Waldrecker Dragoons, the wedding party now clattered across the courtyard of Schloß Moritzburg to the gate and out to the snowy road beyond.

Friday, February 13, 2009

The balance of the proxy ceremony dissolved into a blur of images and discontinuous sensations for the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria as the gravity of the moment finally fully asserted itself.

The words of Msgr. de Chiaroscuro in the confessional rebounded through the chambers of her mind--the "memory palace" of her mind, as Msgr. de Chiaroscuro had called it during his hours of tutelage, she now oddly recalled--"Now faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Because of it the ancients were well attested. By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible."

Now her tutor stood before her and the Comte de Mazan in a manner almost inquisitorial:

The Comte de Mazan arched his eyebrow at the ultimate phrase of the question a moment and let a trace of smile dance over his lips before replying to the monsignor, who had fixed him with an unblinking gaze.

"Suo Maiestas vult"--"His majesty will."

Not breaking eye contact with the comte, who impudently returned the stare, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro continued:

The silence following the monsignor's question stretched out before the Prinzessin as she contemplated the stygian chasm which yawned before her. All her juvenile imaginings of this moment and this question had left her completely blind to any happy resolution consequent to her reply which all present in the salon now strained to hear. The Prinzessin's dry tongue cleaved thickly to her palate as her childhood infatuations and adolescent fantasies ran riot through her mind and the tableau before her seemed to shrink and take on the character of some distant puppet show like those her father arranged to have performed by the servants for her and her sisters in the nursery. But now she could not credit whether she were watching the performance or were rather part of it, a marionette in golden silk and tulle.

As the reverberation of the monsignor's question died away, Sophie-Vittoria found her downcast, watering eyes transfixed by the golden hem of her gown, which seemed to spill like champagne onto the parquetry of the salon floor beneath her. As the silence filled the salon and began to bear down upon her with its full, terrible weight, she perceived her father, still standing beside her between the comte and herself, drawing himself rigidly to his full height almost as a soldier standing in line of battle.

She perceived her grandmother, standing to her left, almost imperceptibly nudge her lady-in-waiting, the Grafin von Schirnhausen, while the monsignor continued his ocular duel with the comte. As the grafin, seemingly in response to the Dowager Duchess, snapped open her fan, painted in ornate turquerie, and held it before her, the Prinzessin became aware of her father's ungloved right hand, placing itself on hers and squeezing gently. As the scene about her shimmered and dissolved before her, the Prinzessin closed her eyes and lost sensibility of of all around her but the warmth of her father's hand on hers.

She loosed her thoughts again to roam the memory palace of her mind, reliving in that instant the sensation of her father's hand on hers during her countless childhood jaunts through the gardens, at her bedside during the days and nights her twelfth year when she lay stricken with the tertian ague which had so taxed her that Herr Doktor Thanisch had advised a novena to St. Jude before the fever broke, and on the ballroom floor the night of her debut the previous August, which now seemed a lifetime ago.

As the Prinzessin opened her mouth to speak, it seemed to her that her own words merged with another woman's contralto, almost indistinguishable from her own, spoken simultaneously.

"Volo"--"I will."

[Ed. Note: A joyous Feast of St. Valentine to all--may you especially enjoy the warmth of your beloved today, and may you live to treasure that warmth in a place of honour in the memory palace of your own mind for years to come.]

Thursday, January 22, 2009

After a lengthy, early-morning consultation in the confessional with Msgr. de Chiaroscuro, a subdued Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria, accompanied by the monsignor, made her entrance into the salon nearest the chapel where she was awaited by her father, the Comte de Mazan, the Dowager Duchess, three of her ladies-in-waiting and Ritter von Trimbach.

Without ceremony, de Mazan presented the sealed and witnessed proxy of Prinz Friedrich, and the appended oath to respect the commitment of the Prinzessin and her female children to the Catholic faith, for the inspection of the Duke and Msgr. de Chiaroscuro. Herzog Ignaz in turn presented for the witnesses the dispensation permitting the Prinzessin to marry outside the Church, signed by Georg Franz, Bishop of Kognat.

Satisfied of the validity of the documents, Msgr. de Chiaroscuro opened his breviary and, carefully avoiding eye contact with the Prinzessin, began to read out the wedding service...

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria sat at her vanity for some time after the polterabend dinner party hosted by her father in honour of the young and dashing Comte de Mazan, arrived in Hunsruck as the proxy of Prinz Friedrich at the wedding ceremony over which Msgr. de Chiaroscuro would preside tomorrow prior to the departure of the wedding party for Waldreck. De Mazan and a company of Waldrecker dragoons would accompany the company of her father's Kürassiere under the command of the departing Oberst Ritter von Trimbach to her intended's capital of Bruttig for the official wedding ceremony at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtnis-Kirche the next day.

The Prinzessin was entirely at a loss at what to make of the Comte; seated next to her--sitting in her mother's place upon her mother's continuing indisposition--as the guest of honour at dinner his conversation had been completely correct and obsequious, but something in his gaze at her had at all times savoured of impudence. The manner with which he had rendered his baise-main at the end of the evening would have raised a blush had her complexion not been properly whitened and rouged beforehand, and now provoked a lingering discomfort as she contemplated the imminent, four-day carriage procession to Bruttig.

Rousing herself from her reverie, the Prinzessin reached for the sponge and warm water prepared for her to remove her blanche and rouge. Moving the bowl and candle closer to the looking glass, she noticed an unobtrusive white packet bound with a white ribbon which had been propped between the bowl and the glass.

While her dressing maids professed ignorance as to its arrival there, the Prinzessin opened the parcel addressed only "To the Prinzessin." Inside she found a smaller envelope labeled "pour la succession," containing an odourless white powder, and an essay of several pages in an elegant French hand entitled "De l'Assassinat Considéré comme Un des Beaux-Arts." Astonished, the Prinzessin reached for her quizzing glass and began to read...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Oberst Andreas Ritter von Trimbach, just informed of his New Year's commission as the new commander of the Tradgardland Regiment in the service of the Duke of Tradgardland, proceeds with the execution of his final honorific commission in the service of Herzog Ignaz by reviewing the parade route of the Prinzessin Sophie-Vittoria's nuptial procession through the Herzogerpark quarter of Hunsruck, along with the Leib company of the Kürassiere who will serve as the Prinzessin's honour guard during her journey to Waldreck for the official ceremony after the Octave of Epiphany.

Oberst von Trimbach is somewhat troubled by the refusal of the Prinzessin to consult on her security requirements during the procession and subsequent journey; indeed, it would seem she has had as little as possible to do with any planning, other than insisting upon a private Catholic wedding service prior to the official ceremony. Von Trimbach knew that such reticence is not out of the ordinary for such political alliances, and, indeed, significantly simplified the process, but the Prinzessin's behaviour on the crucial day remained a troubling cipher in Oberst Trimbach's logistical calculations.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Following time-honoured tradition, The Most Reverend Georg Franz, Bishop of Kognat, this morning celebrated the Mass of the Feast of the Epiphany. After the homily, the Dean of the Kognatdom noted:

"Dearly beloved brethren, you shall know that as we have rejoiced in the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, so there is announced to you by the mercy of God the joyous observance of the Resurrection of the same our Savior:

February 18th is Septuagesima Sunday.

On March 7th Ash Wednesday begins the most holy season of Lent.

On April 15th we shall celebrate with great rejoicing the holy Easter Festival of our Lord Jesus Christ.

May 24th is the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

June 3rd is the Feast of Pentecost.

December 2nd is the First Sunday in the Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honor and glory, world without end. Amen."